The
soldiers are doing strange things in Fallujah, said one of my
contacts in Fallujah who just returned. He was in his city checking
on his home and just returned to Baghdad this evening.

Speaking on condition
of anonymity he continued, In the center of the Julan Quarter
they are removing entire homes which have been bombed, meanwhile most
of the homes that were bombed are left as they were. Why are they doing
this?

According to him,
this was also done in the Nazal, Mualmeen, Jubail and Shuhadaa
districts, and the military began to do this after Eid, which was after
November 20th.

He told me he has
watched the military use bulldozers to push the soil into piles and
load it onto trucks to carry away. This was done in the Julan and Jimouriya
quarters of the city, which is of course where the heaviest fighting
occurred during the siege, as this was where resistance was the fiercest.

At least two
kilometers of soil were removed, he explained, Exactly as
they did at Baghdad Airport after the heavy battles there during the
invasion and the Americans used their special weapons.

He explained that
in certain areas where the military used special munitions
200 square meters of soil was being removed from each blast site.

In addition, many
of his friends have told him that the military brought in water tanker
trucks to power blast the streets, although he hadnt seen this
himself.

They went
around to every house and have shot the water tanks, he continued,
As if they are trying to hide the evidence of chemical weapons
in the water, but they only did this in some areas, such as Julan and
in the souk (market) there as well.

He first saw this
having been done after December 20th.

Again, this is reflective
of stories Ive been told by several refugees from Fallujah.

Just last December,
a 35 year-old merchant from Fallujah, Abu Hammad, told me what hed
experienced when he was still in the city during the siege.

The American
warplanes came continuously through the night and bombed everywhere
in Fallujah! It did not stop even for a moment! If the American forces
did not find a target to bomb, they used sound bombs just to terrorize
the people and children. The city stayed in fear; I cannot give a picture
of how panicked everyone was.

In the mornings
I found Fallujah empty, as if nobody lives in it, hed said,
Even poisonous gases have been used in Fallujah-they used everything-tanks,
artillery, infantry, poison gas. Fallujah has been bombed to the ground.
Nothing is left.

In Amiriyat al-Fallujah,
a small city just outside Fallujah where many doctors from Fallujah
have been practicing since they were unable to do so at Fallujah General
Hospital, similar stories are being told.

Last month one refugee
who had just arrived at the hospital in the small city explained that
hed watched the military bring in water tanker trucks to power
blast some of the streets in Fallujah.

Why are they
doing this, explained Ahmed (name changed for his protection),
To beautify Fallujah? No! They are covering their tracks from
the horrible weapons they used in my city.

Also last November,
another Fallujah refugee from the Julan area, Abu Sabah told me, They
(US military) used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom
cloud. Then small pieces feel from the air with long tails of smoke
behind them.

He explained that
pieces of these bombs exploded into large fires that burnt peoples skin
even when water was dumped on their bodies, which is the effect of phosphorous
weapons, as well as napalm. People suffered so much from these,
both civilians and fighters alike, he said.

My friend Suthir
(name changed to protect identity) was a member of one of the Iraqi
Red Crescent relief convoys that was allowed into Fallujah at the end
of November.

Im sure
the Americans committed bad things there, but who can discover and say
this, she said when speaking of what she saw of the devastated
city, They didnt allow us to go to the Julan area or any
of the others where there was heavy fighting, and Im sure that
is where the horrible things took place.

The Americans
didnt let us in the places where everyone said there was napalm
used, she added, Julan and those places where the heaviest
fighting was, nobody is allowed to go there.

On 30 November the
US military prevented an aid convoy from reaching Fallujah. This aid
convoy was sent by the Iraqi Ministry of Health, but was told by soldiers
at a checkpoint to return in 8 or 9 days, reported AP.

Dr. Ibrahim al-Kubaisi
who was with the relief team told reporters at that time, There
is a terrible crime going in Fallujah and they do not want anybody to
know.

With the military
maintaining strict control over who enters Fallujah, the truth of what
weapons were used remains difficult to find.

Meanwhile, people
who lived in different districts of Fallujah continue to tell the same
stories.